New Haven Independent

ItsHaky contacted the Independent to comment on statements that GOP Chairman Chris Healy made to gay-rights supporters at a forum in New Haven Wednesday evening. Healy told the crowd he and his party oppose requiring employers to grant same-sex couples in civil unions the same health-care benefits as those granted to heterosexual married couples. “There is a cost to that [kind of government mandate] that, as Republicans, we feel is not in the best interest of a society for an economy to grow,” Healy told the crowd.

(Click here to read about that event.)

“I completely disassociate myself from the opinions of the chairman,” ItsHaky said Thursday. He said he supports “civil unions plus” — upgrading Connecticut’s civil unions law to entitle same-sex unions to all the health benefits, anti-discrimination protections and other legal protections offered to married heterosexual couples.

ItsHaky said he does not support passing a same-sex marriage law, though. He noted that some half of all marriages fails within seven years. “I’m not a big defender of the marriage institution in America in general. It is failing. I don’t think there’s a big reason to believe it’s a sacred institution.”